Anyone would like to practice together?

[Sk3ptik0n]

I practice on iracing almost every night and from time to time I find otehr folks that enjoy practicing together. It's something I not only enjoy, but I find that it speeds up certain aspects of the learning process a great deal. Among the things we practice are:

Starts and T1 entry. Even with just 2 cars this is a great drill to do and it's kind of fun too.
Side by side driving. In this one, we start side by side and lap, increasing speed a bit at the time until we feel we get it down and then we switch sides. This is great practice for driving in traffic, passing, etc.
Passing and trailing. Who hasn't wrecked by following someone and chasing them all the way off the track? By doing this drill, you learn to look at the track while still following someone in front.

And I have a list of other drills as well. Plus there is always the idea that two or more brains work better than one. Even a less skilled racer can probably give you good input and at least it will be a second opinion on something you may not be able to see yourself.

However, it doesn't happen often that the right people meet in a practice room and hosting practices without pre-arrangement can get expensive and it's still no guarantee you'll find people willing to practice with you.


So this is the reason why I am posting here. Somehow similar posts on the iracing forum always ended up going off topic after the first few negative comments. I am hoping here to find a more receptive audience, so if any of you are interested in discussing ways to practice together (and it doesn't have to be iracing only either. Other sims are fine too), respond and let's see what we can organize.

Personally, I live on the US West coast so PST evenings and weekends is when I am available. Planning these things too in advance is a chore, so I would prefer to eventually have a core group of people that know each other and that can find one anotehr in iracing and plan to join either the same practice room or host a server together at teh moment, rather than days in advance.

Anyway, I am all ears on suggestions and comment but above all I would like to find other people that also think this could be a useful and fun way to get better.

 

[Eric Estes]

I'm game - and I could really use the drills. EDT, but I tend to stay up late. Most weekends are good, depending on what league seasons are going on. Best days for practice are Tuesdays and Thursdays, as I generally leave Mondays and Wednesdays open for the GT and Mini club races, and Fridays for ATCC League or WTCC Club races.

atm I squeeze iRacing in the cracks, though this will probably expand. Just wish they'd get beyond single-make racing, though their licenses may not allow for it.

I do have the ability to set up a dedicated server in Race (or even rFactor, though I havent' done it yet) on a separate machine to use for practice.

 

[Joe Hubbard]

I would love to do something like this. I think it's a great idea, and the only drawbacks that I could see are perhaps timezone differences. I have found that even thought I brought my computer with me for the Christmas vaction here my grandmothers internet where we are staying isn't quite good enough to race with. So my wife and I should be back home Monday and after that I'm game.

 

[Will Marquez]

I'm in - West Coast PST here. The way I see it, any time like minded drivers get together that practice/race hard and clean. It can only help one's racecraft. Great idea Corrado.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Practice

Thanks guys, I am really happy about the positive response. I went to look for a similar post I made in the Star Mazda Forum on iracing and I found a response from someone else that made some very good points on how to conduct these practice sessions.Tis is what he posted at teh time:

- Drive the whole track just on the right side, and then on the left side; this helps you gain comfort with being off-line, and building a 'sight picture' for how the track looks from a different perspective. This is really useful for finding reference points where you're not typically looking (especially when your normal ones on the other side of the track might not be visible due to the presence of a car right next to you) and learning if certain corners are off-camber at unexpected places where you rarely drive, or tighten up unexpectedly on the outside (which I've found is surprisingly common).

- Partner up with somebody and drive side-by-side around the whole track, starting slowly and then building up speed before swapping sides and doing it all again. This builds comfort with being close to somebody else and dramatically helps in a racing situation. If you can do this in a small pack with a row or two of cars doing the same thing a little bit ahead or behind, it can be even better.

- Large-field practice starts; it's easy to set this up for doing many of these in a short period of time if the pack does a start and then races through the first few turns (maybe until just after the Carousel at Road America), then stops racing and forms back up and does it again when they come around to S/F. This will take some coordination to have somebody do a countdown and then 'green' callout as the field approaches S/F each time (or after re-lining up on grid for a standing start), but really does a lot to improve the first-lap experience in a race. Switching the grid order around every few starts can help everyone get comfortable with learning what it's like to start at different parts of the field.

- Practice races; having some experienced racers/instructors strung throughout the field (possibly even in faster cars to make it easier for them to move up and down throughout the pack) with the goal of specifically giving each participant/student some experience with seeing and dealing with many of the things that come up during a race (being passed in a really bad spot, dealing with a much slower car that stays on the line, dealing with early brakers and late brakers, dealing with dive bombers and door-closers, etc.)

Naturally, not all of it applies if there are only 2 or 3 guys practicing, but for instance even if you have just 3 cars you could practice starts and T1 entries, which are always hairy and by and large the only times I get to practice them is in real races. Not ideal since even small mistakes can end your race and that of the other racers.

The few times I was able to practice together, we started doing laps with the faster guy behind trying to pass the slower guy, whom in turn had to try to block him legally.

The permutations are infinite really, but the basic idea is to try to practice real racing skills beyond lap times, which is what everyone else is practicing. Beside being fun, I do believe it can make you a better racer or at the very least a more consistent one.

Now the only issue is how to make it easy to get in touch and meet. As I pointed out earlier, it's OK to plan in advance, but it can be complicated.

We could set up a Ventrilo or teamspeak account (although I know some folks have sound card, headphones issues). Even Skype could be a good way to do it.

Another good solution would be to exchange cellphone numbers and send each other texts.

Each person could create an entry with the numbers of all the other racers and simply send a text like: Vette, 10:30 Silverstone" or something like that. I know that I have been missing fewer races since I mapped the iracing "Race Planner" emails to my phone. Previously I would get the emails, but who checks emails when you are racing? So I would always miss my races. Now instead I get my phone to buzz and I don;t forget them.

Anyway, if any of you have ideas in that regard, let's discuss it. It needs to be something that does not breach our privacy, yet is easy to check and easy to manage. Only if we make it easy we'll end up meeting and making this thing work.

 

[Will Marquez]

I've found that having a chat messenger also works well to keep in contact with fellow RDers. Whether it be MSN messenger (all RD contacts on there for me ) and I also use Google Talk as well. That way you can ask if they are gonna race, ask for advice on setups etc. And then meet up on RD teamspeak and just head to an iRacing practice session. Just a suggestion as those are all free to download and use.

 

[Will Marquez]

Link to use Teamspeak 3 on RD. http://www.racedepartment.com/rules-passwords/

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Cool, I wasn't aware there was a teamspeak channel for RD.

Let me tell you, I could really use some practice right now on the Star Mazda. usually I am only a couple of seconds off alien times at worse, but this week at Silverstone I am having a hell of a time. Not sure why because I really like the track, but my lap times are abysmal. I had a big slump at Zandy last week, where I clocked a string of really fast laps on the first night of practice and then I was 2 seconds off my own average for the rest of the week, but on Sunday I was able to somehow capture the magic again for a 3rd p[lace finish. But this week I doubt the miracle is going to repeat.

I really hope we can set something up on a semi-regular basis with a good group of people because I think it can really help a lot of folks.

 

[Dazmaniac]

I have also been adding RD iRacers as friends within the iRacing 'MyRacers' option, so its usually quite easy to see who of the RD community is online when I sign in and if any of them are currently in particular sessions (the steering wheel icon will prefix their name and by hovering the mouse over this it tells you where they are or what they have signed up to).

As I'm typing, I've just added Corrado to my friends list and also see that William Nowell was keeping busy at 00:14 GMT on 28th Dec.....

Hosted session: F1
Track: Virginia International Raceway
Car: Williams-Toyota FW31

 

[William Nowell]

I don't go back to work until Jan. 4th, so you will see me on at all kinds of times this week.

 

[Paul Landis]

Sounds like a great idea. I'm be interested and love to have some folks to run with!!